Guest Post by Erica Dhawan | Quiet Quitting Isn’t OK

This is a guest post by WWSG thought leader, Erica Dhawan.

I have a strong opinion about the new popular term “quiet quitting.” While I am a fan of ending hustle culture, let’s pause for a second and acknowledge the truth:

It’s called quiet quitting because the original idea was to quit without quitting and see how long you could get away with it, and to take advantage of things like remote work lack of visibility. It comes out of the “antiwork” movement, and it thrives in environments where management is weak, which regretfully is a lot of modern corporate America.

No one gets ahead by sleeping on the job, going through the motions, accepting a lack of engagement, joy and purpose in our work as a long-term solution to burnout. That’s the version of quiet quitting we need to quit.

Here are 3 things you can do this fall to ensure the conversation on quiet quitting doesn’t devolve and turns into a lesson to drive productive teamwork:

1) Do an exercise to talk about the opposite of quiet quitting – “Joyful Engagement.” Ask your team: What have we loved about our roles? What activities make us most engaged? What are the best parts are our job? This will give you regular moments of connection with employees tied to your purpose and mission. Use this to match people to tasks they most enjoy and celebrate successful wins.

2) For all employees, set up career conversations with them and proactively invest in their growth. Ask questions like: Where do you want to be in 5 years? What do you love? What saps your energy? Help them decide to stay and fully commit or support their departure.

3) Be clear with your team that quiet quitting is not the answer. That the team is better off with someone fully engaged or someone who chooses to leave to find the right environment for them.  Additionally, gather feedback from your teams on what makes your team a worthwhile place to be.

Join the conversation on my recent Linkedin page here where my post became Linkedin’s Idea of the Day. I hope you can reframe the quiet quitting debate into a productive conversation for your team!